Tag: journey

I know my blog is about my weightloss journey. I looked up the definition of the word journey;

“a long and often difficult process of personal change and development.”

I realised it is so much more than just a weightloss journey. For me to live a happy and healthy life I need to work on all areas of my life.

This is something I need to work on to be able to achieve the ultimate goal which is to be happy and healthy.

Why do I struggle to avoid people’s harsh opinions?

Something you need to know about me is – I am a very soft person with a very strong will.

At this point of my life, those two do not go together very well.

Being a person with a strong will, that wants to succeed, it requires being around people that always tries to get you down. (No one wants someone to be better than them) It sucks!! I never realised that ‘the big world out there’ can be full of such disgusting people. Boy OH boy, did I realise this fact quicker than I would have hoped to?

On the other hand, my soft side – I always try to be nice. I try to help where I can. I cry very quickly and I feel I am to young to lift my opinion or, ‘be rude’ back to whomever it might be carrying on at me because they are older than me.

“Respect your elders” my mother taught us. Now I would’ve loooved to say “bullshit! They started this fight!!” Unfortunately, I am not that person.

For some pathetic reason, what people say and how they treat me effects me in a huge way!! I seem to always take it personally, like they saying it because something is wrong with me. I am doing something that they don’t like?

What an insightful post. I read the whole article but this part made me realise that people’s opinion doesn’t matter, it is who YOU believe you are and what YOU believe you can achieve that matters.

Because other people don’t live your life, you can only live it for yourself. And for that, you must stop listening to others’ inflated belief systems.

For a while after entering the ‘big world’ I thought that having the combination of emotions and will power is a bad thing, I honestly still had that thought 10 minutes ago. Then I read that article.

The sad truth is, people will always try to get to you. Nobody wants anybody to go ahead in life but themselves. It is how you handle criticism that will make the difference.

How I used to handle it, I start crying because I don’t understand why they are so rude – WRONG way!!

They are rude because they see my ability, what I can achieve and they are trying to use my GIFT against me, my soft nature.

Yes, I see it as a gift. It is a gift to be able to look at someone and see deeper than just the person, to be able to put yourself in their shoes and realise they maybe had lots of pain in their past. To be a friend to someone and trying to be there for people. That is a gift.

People will no longer use my gift against me. My future husband always tells me “take it from who it comes.” Really, who are these people to me? For me to allow their opinion to hurt and effect my life, my success?

I will use my gift against them Yes, thats right! I will kill them with kindness. How embarrassed will those people be if they see this girl smiling at them and carrying on with her life as if they weren’t talking at all? They will see that their opinion means nothing to me and they will realise that they have LOST!! They are not getting to me anymore.

I am an emotional person, nothing wrong with that. What I need to realise is;

“What other people think of me is none of my business.” ~Wayne Dyer

And THAT quote right there, it will change my future. What are those people in my life? Nothing!! What they think of me, it is none of my business! 😀

They gave a very good example – A smoker, it is nothing new to that person that “smoking kills”, do they stop smoking because they have that knowledge of how bad it is for you? Nope.

Same goes for overweight people, we know that being fat is not good for our health. Do we stop eating unhealthy? Nope.

Why? If a person finds something that they enjoy or that they think ‘helps’ them get through things, for example – an emotional eater, when they are sad they eat. The addiction takes over from reality. We would rather look for excuses as to WHY we can’t stop than to use our knowledge of the negative effects of whatever bad it is we are doing to stop doing it and change our habits.

All the knowlegde in the world won’t help you if you are not willing to make the changes necessary to live a better life.

I don’t know about you but I can not get out of bed before I did a nice stretch, taking over the whole bed with a long “good morning world” stretch. It wakes me up and I get that “I am ready for the day” feeling.

This is the one thing I’ve learned over the years – STRETCHING is one of the most, if not most importantpart of your general wellbeing.

Benefits of stretching:

Stretching lengthens your muscles which is important for flexibility, range of motion and injury prevention.

It helps to loosen tight muscles. Now, it is also not good to stretch if your muscles are not warmed up (it can cause muscle strains) – before you stretch, take a walk or a quick jog (even if it is in one place) just to get the muscles going.

Loose muscles = helps with blood flow and it relaxes the muscles.

That is why it is so important to stretch after a workout.

You all know I am no expert when it comes to gymming (yet), but one thing I know – the importance of stretching after any excersice, even of you just took a walk.

A few years ago I broke my ankle. Rushed to hospital, I had an operation where they put a plate and screw (sorry, I don’t know the medical terms) into my ancle. I walked with a Moonboot for about 4-5 months after which I had to almost learn how to walk again, thats how weak my muscles were in that foot. I went to the physio and I learned the importance of stretching.

She told me ‘stretch, stretch, stretch’. I obviously had to start slow, but after a while my foot and ankle was 100% functional again and it wasn’t long before I was back on the netball court.

The whole point of this story, I learned the importance of stretching and what it can do for your muscles. It is wonderful for stiff muscles, it might be sore to stretch when your muscles are stiff but you have to work through the pain, it will loosen up.

If you are sick or you are not in a position to exercise, stretching is the perfect way to keep your muscles loose and prevent injuries. Just a short stretch, if it is touching your toes and keeping it there for a few seconds. Any stretch you feel works for the specific muscle that it stiff – you will feel the difference in your movement real fast.

Stretching after a workout-

A full body stretch, and each stretch you do, hold it for atleast 30 seconds. It will lengthen your muscles which will prevent injuries or stiffness the next day.

Mangosteen

Mangosteen is a darkish fruit, originated from Southeast Countries. It is also called ‘Queen of Fruit.’

I recently applied for a free online course, learning everything you need to know about nutritions. During my study I learned about SuperFoods, these are foods that are crutial for your wellbeing. SuperFoods include:

Hot Peppers – helps with weightloss, prevention of cancer

Mushrooms – anti inflammatory

Spring onions and garlic – Works out toxins in your body

These are just a few examples of SuperFoods, one of which was Mangosteen.

What is Mangosteen? You all know my best friend, Google 😀

And WOW!!! What amazing results I found, what mangosteen can do for your body and your health.

Benefits

Some of the benefits of Mangosteen is; Anti Oxidant, anti fungal, antibacterial, boost immune system, help with inflammation, manage weightloss and it is good for your skin… The list goes on.

Now I wondered, how do I get this fruit? You can order it online in the form of juice. 100% mangosteen juice, no added preservatives, 100% natural.

It is so important to live healthy, I realise it more and more everyday. Using natural supplements are the way to go (in my opinion)

“Prevention is better than cure.”

Starting with a healthy lifestyle and good supplements early in your life is very important. I’ve learned that most of the things we need for our body to be healthy when we are older you need to take in from a young age.

It is the things we use when we are young that will keep us healthy when we are old.

What you put INTO your body, that is what you will get OUT of your body. Meaning; if you live healthy and consume healthy foods and supplements, you will have a healthy and strong body.

I’ve learned a lot during this journey and I will NEVER look back, it was the best decision I have ever made, to start looking after myself and my body. I don’t want to do anything else.

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I had a wonderful holiday!!! Being on a weightloss journey and going on holiday is a tricky situation to be in. I was planning on excersing every day and eating healthy. My excersice idea lasted one day and the eating healthy? Well, that went out the door when we got on our flight.

We are only human, we all want to have a bit of fun

I decided that I want to enjoy my holiday, not worry about portion sizes or waking up early to workout. I work hard during the year and wake up early 7 days a week, on my holiday I want to rest, have fun and wake up when my eyes open. Surprisingly, I found that even though we ate whatever we wanted, the amount of food we ate was a lot less than what we would usually eat on holiday. That to me was already a good sign. A sign that I am making progress.

We were active…

Yes, we did a lot of activities. Rowing, peddle boat, walking on the beach- we were busy all the time and THAT is what made the difference!! I did not pick up any weight during my holiday 😀 I am so proud!! I didn’t loose any weight, but I honestly thought I would gain. Nope, did not gain, did not loose. It motivated me to continue working out now that I am back. We are only human, but the fact that, even though I ate unhealthy, I am already making so much progress that the amount of food I am able to eat is a lot less than before and that to me means I am on the path to success What an amazing holiday, I renewed my strenght. My soul is happy. I am a CHAMPION and I will always be a champion because that is how I see myself. I can overcome ANYTHING!! I will endure and I WILL finish strong and proud!!

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Have you ever thought that there might be something that is weighing you down? Something that is keeping you from your dreams?

Every one of us has some sort of a problem, an issue that we have to live with. It can be your self esteem, health, worries, whatever it might be – we all have something that is weighing us down.

Is there anything in this world that is more important than your dreams?

The answer is NO!!

As you know, we are on holiday, we came to visit my parents.

My moms got rheumatoid arthritis, she’s got a lot of pain, does that keep her from walking along the beach, swimming with her children? No it doesn’t!

We went to the beach today and we stopped quite far from where we wanted to swim. My mom walked all the way and we had a blast in the water.

After all this fun I thought long and hard- if someone thats got arthirithis can have the strength and the will power to do the things they dream about (in my moms case, having fun with her children), why is it that some of us that are perfectly healthy always make excuses? Shouldn’t we be SO greatful for our health that we are always up for any challenge?

Today I realised, my mom is stronger than any person I know, she is setting an example to her children of how to carry on despite of your problems and she doesn’t even realise that she is such an inspiration.

To be able to live your life despite your disabilities, problems, worries. That is what I call living life to the fullest!!

Everybody always think climbing Mount Everest is living life to the fullest. Living life to the fullest, in my opinion, is doing the best with what you’ve got! If you have eyes and you see the good in other people, if you have legs and you use them to walk where you want to be, if you have arms and you hold the people you love. THAT to me is living life to the fullest. Some people can’t do those things…

How can you ever be ungreatful when you are so blessed?

My mom can’t do everything we do, but believe me, she sure tries.

I want us all to think of our lives and I want us to realise how greatful we must be to be able to walk, to smell, hear.

If you lost your sight today, what would you do? These are small things we take for granted and we moan about all the things we CAN NOT do, what about the things you CAN do? Doesn’t that make up for the little you can’t?

You become the person you tell yourself to be.

We are perfectly made, each one of us and I am SO proud of my mom, how she decided that she will live her life the way she choose to, this thing won’t get her down!!

What a wonderful mom, what a strong woman.

Her wrists can’t move, does that keep her from feeding her family, holding her children and most importantly, those hands of hers is permanently in the air praising the Lord and praying for her husband and children. Isn’t that living life to the fullest with what she’s got?

My beautiful mom that we love so very much!

I am definitely changing my ways, I moan waaay to much about things that are so small.

I am fighting my fat, I decide how I want to live my life – I decided I want to be healthy, I won’t let anything weigh me down.

I am stronger than my fears.

I am the boss of me and only I can change my life.

We should never give up, when you think you CAN’T, you CAN, not necessarily like someone else, but you CAN!!

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A few hours from now we are getting on a flight, we are going to the beeeeaaaccchh!!! 😀

I hope you can ‘read’ my excitement?

We have not been on holiday for a while and you all know that the beach is my happy place! I am ooover the moon.

What is happening to my healthy eating?

I am still doing going ahead. Being on holiday doesn’t mean that you have to put your face in a cake now? No ways, I worked to hard!

Yes, absolutely – being at the ocean means FRESH fish and delicious sushi. I am aware of the basics – salad instead of chips, grilled fish instead of fried. Make no mistake, I am definitely going to enjoy my holiday but I will still be making good choices, small changes that will make a big difference to how I usually eat on holiday.

Oh how I looove running on the beach…

I am not a runner at all, it is not something I enjoy but doing it on the beach is something that I will do, with pleasure.

The sound, how relaxing? It makes me feel focused on what I need to do.

The water – nothing like a bit of water to wash of the sweat and carry on. 😉 So, I will also be excersing on our holiday.

I will definitely still post on my blog.

This is a very important part of my journey, to take some time to relax and strenghten my mind for the year ahead.

I’ve got big dreams and I am still not close to where I want to be, BUT … I am closer than yesterday, that is whats important.

Like this:

“Enjoy the process”, is that easy?

Loosing weight is a process. It doesn’t happen overnight, as we all know, it takes time.

Me personally, I do not like to wait. I want it to happen NOW!! Unfortunately, thats not possible.

Eversince I started, I look in the mirror everyday to see if there is a difference in my body, sometimes a few times a day…

It is something that I do not think I should be doing. We all know that loosing weight doesn’t happen overnight. What I’ve noticed is – when you start loosing weight, you first look worse and then you look better.

You go through a stage where you feel thinner but you look worse, flabby… Your tummy is not as tight as it used to be (Tight fat), it looks flabby. I dont know if it is just me??

But even if it is just me, I don’t like it. It feels like I look worse than I looked before, and THIS is the time where I would usually give up BUT, I won’t. I actually think it is the beginning of me starting to look a lot better, soon.

I’ve come this far, to give up at any point of the process will be the dumbest decision ever.

Usually, just as a person is about to give up, in anything in life, thats the time where you need to be stronger than ever. Change is around the corner.

I didn’t get this far to give up now!!

It takes time, your body goes through funny changes, but I am 100% sure it will be worth it in the end.

How can something that you dream about, think about all the time NOT be worth fighting for??

Quiting is not an option, ever!!

Hard times is most certainly apart of the process, but what is that saying? “If it was easy, everyone would have it” – I love that so much, it is so true.

I think it is a process that I must try to enjoy, everyday is a step closer to where I want to be, It doesn’t help I get upset or negative, atleast I am fitter and stronger than yesterday. Not always easy thinking about it in such positive way, but I really want to try.

My opinion regarding REAL and FAKE…

So the thing to have these days are a big butt, right? It is all over the media. The one day women does not even have a bump, the next day, well, we all know, they’ve got massive butts.

IT IS NOT REAL!! IT IS FAKE!!

I know some woman really work hard in the gym and they have well deserved butts, but what we see in the media, the things that “all woman want”, they are not always worked for, they are bought!! Those are not things that we shoud set as our goals.

Sweat, sometimes tears, working hard towards your goals – these are the things MONEY can not buy!! Surely getting a big butt this way is much more rewarding?

I keep saying this because this is something that is such a big problem in my opinion.

People look at ‘rolmodels’ and decide what is the perfect body, what they would like to look like. But most times, the rolmodels they choose is people that visit the plastic surgeon on a weekly basis. That is not someone to look up to?? Yes, it looks amazing, but it is bought!!! Isn’t a rolmodel suppose to be someone that works hard to get to where they ultimately want to be? That shows you that hard work pays off?

I don’t know, I can be wrong. I just feel many people have no idea what the difference is between REAL and FAKE!!

Eversince I started this journey I realised how HARD it is to work on yourself (your body) and then you get people that goes for surgery to get the bodies they want, isn’t that cheating yourself?

Choosing the easy way out?

I don’t know…

I don’t know if maybe I had the money I would also do all kinds of surgery’s, I mean it is probably easier?

Then I look at all these personal trainers and I realise –

To work for the body you want is SO much sexier than doing it the easy way.

My story to getting thàt butt…

In school I used to play netball so our team had a personal trainer. Everyday we had a session, of HARD HARD work!!

Squats being a very important excersice, we almost did them everyday. Why?

Squats (Wikipedia):

In strength training and fitness, the squat is a compound, full body exercise that trains primarily the muscles of the thighs, hips and buttocks, quadriceps femoris muscle (vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, vastus intermedius and rectus femoris), hamstrings, as well as strengthening the bones, ligaments and insertion of the tendons throughout the lower body. Squats are considered a vital exercise for increasing the strength and size of the legs as well as developing core strength. Isometrically, the lower back, the upper back, the abdominals, the trunk muscles, the costal muscles, and the shoulders and arms are all essential to the exercise and thus are trained when squatting with the proper form.

Playing netball you need to have a good posture, you need to have strong legs to prevent injuries. Landing with the pressure on your knees the whole time can cause serious knee injuries. Doing squats strenghten your legs and important, the muscles that are protecting your knees.

That is what I learned doing squats, good posture. Your posture needs to be perfect for squats to do their job. Netball was the reason I used to do squats.

What is my reason now?

It is a wonderful excersice that makes me feel SO good!! It is good for various reasons – strong legs, a nice round butt, shaped hamstrings.

Because I love doing squats I set up a personal squat challenge for 1 month. This is for myself, I don’t have to start with 10 squats because I can do more.

I want to work to have nice legs, I want to work to have a flat stomach and I want to work to get that butt.

I still do my stomach excersice and dumbells, I just feel like picking up with the squats – it is something I enjoy and that makes me feel good. I know with squating you need cardio, to loose the fat around the leg muscle.

So before I do my daily challenge I do skipping for atleast 10 minutes. I only started this on Monday – skipping and squats, I like that combination, it has always worked for me and I love the pain I feel after doing squats, it feels like my legs are pure muscle. LoL! 😀

Lets see how it goes, I still have 10 months to reach my goal, I am positive I will get there.

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Today I realised how important it is to live your life with Positivity.

Definition of positive thinking:

Positive thinking is a mental attitude in wich you expect good and favorable results. In other words, positive thinking is the process of creating thoughts that create and transform energy into reality. A positive mind waits for happiness, health and a happy ending in any situation.

I have a short story to tell –

We listen to the radio every morning before getting ready for work. So this morning there was a competition (you send your name, they will phone you and you must say a certain phrase when answering the phone.)

Now also you must understand it is a very popular station so there are 1000’s entering their competitions. I obviously entered because I love winning, it is so cool.

I sent the message and I was 100% sure they would phone so I wrote down the phrase I must say when answering, everything- I was ready to win. My boyfriend said, ‘they won’t phone man, why you writing it down?’ I replied, ‘I am preparing my fields.’

A few minutes later my phone rang and it was them, I said the phrase and I won R4000.

This made me realise, being positive, preparing yourself for success is SO important!!

Do you know that if you prepare yourself for success the chances are, you WILL be successful!!

The brain is a wonderful thing but it can be very dangerous!!

Lets look at our thoughts…

If you repeatedly say “I cannot do this!!”

What is going to happen? You will NOT be able to do it!!

Your brain is so strong, but unfortunately he cannot ‘work’ on his own, he will become what his ‘owner’ is.

Now you must ask yourself the question, ‘what type of owner are you?’

Do you speak positive words?

Do you work hard?

Do you believe in yourself?

Or…

Are you always complaining, being negative?

Are you always looking for excuses as for why you cannot do something?

Do you give up before even trying?

This is very important, what type of owner are you??

Your brain will only be as strong as you allow him to be.

The brain can be a very strong tool, but it is up to YOU to activate his strengths.

How to be a good owner to your brain:

Firstly, you need to realise – it is up to you!! It is no one else’s job to live your life. You are responsible for the life you live.

Be positive – if YOU are positive, you will get positive results because your brain will be focused on only positive things.

Let no person get you down – You are special, nothing that anyone else says should matter, don’t allow any negative comments in your life.

Work hard – train your brain to go the extra mile, to work just a little bit harder everytime.

Set goals – set a goal and tell yourself that you will NOT stop untill the day you kicked that goal under the butt.

Tell yourself you are beautiful – every morning you wake up, look at yourself in the mirror and say ‘morning gorgeous.’ Why?? Even if you do not think you are gorgeous, by repeating it everyday, believe me, you will start believing that you are!! And you are, you should believe it 🙂

Being positive will do so much for you. You will live a better life, you will achieve more, you will be much happier and most importantly – You will wake up with a fire in your heart believing that you CAN do everything you put your mind to!!

Your success, what you become in life, your happiness, your health, your dreams, your salary, your weight – it is all up to you!!

No one can force you to be a happier, stronger person.

Just remember this quote:

“The decisions you make today will be the person you are tomorrow.”

Why would you want to be a negative, unhappy, unsuccessful person out of your own will??

If you want something, WORK FOR IT!! Nothing gets given to you on a silver plate.

If you feel negative, think about positive things that makes you happy!!

You are the owner of your brain, of your life, only you can make the decision to change things, either for the better or, unfortunately some people decide to change for the worse.

I ask again, what type of owner will yoube from today onwards?

You are stronger than you think, you can do ANYTHING you put your mind to!!

Prepare your fields, for when the day comes and it starts raining you are ready.

Do not live a life where one day you look back and wish you had been more positive, stronger, happier… There is never a better moment than RIGHT NOW, if you want to be happier, make the decision to start being positive.